About caBIG

The cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid, or caBIG, is an informatics infrastructure that is connecting teams of cancer and biomedical researchers together to enable them to better develop and share tools and data in an open environment with common standards. caBIG is creating a voluntary virtual network (or grid) that links individuals and institutions, both nationally and internationally, effectively forming a World Wide Web of cancer research.

caBIG will allow researchers to answer research questions more rapidly and efficiently, thereby promising to accelerate progress in all aspects of cancer research– from etiologic research to prevention, early detection and treatment. Ultimately, because caBIG will provide a common unifying force that facilitates progress in cancer research and care, the most important beneficiaries will be cancer patients and the public at large.

Click here to see an Interactive Overview about caBIG!

Click here to read more about caBIG.

Click here to read about the caBIG Strategic Vision

Click here to read about the caBIG Strategic Goals

Click here to read about the caBIG Principles

History

The caBIG pilot program was announced in July 2003 under the coordinating supervision of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and was launched in February, 2004. The vision, approach, and structure of caBIG has been developed in partnership with the research community based on common identified needs.

To date, NCI and over 50 of its designated Cancer Centers have formed the first group of developers and adopters of caBIG. Involving the Cancer Centers from the beginning is central to NCI’s strategy to develop caBIG with direct input and participation from the cancer research community, to ensure it will directly address their needs. As caBIG is an open-source, open-access process, other members of the cancer research community, and the private sector, are free and welcome to become involved at any time.

As the grid is established over the next year, the vision is to attract additional partners to the network from within the NCI and its grantees, other National Institutes of Health components, interested federal health agencies, industry groups, as well as the broader biomedical research community. Some of these groups have already contributed ideas to the development of caBIG vision.

To read more about the History of caBIG, click here.

Pilot Structure

caBIG activities are organized by Workspaces, each addressing an area of need as identified by the cancer research community. Within individual Workspaces, participants undertake project activities as Developers or Adopters. Specific software applications and solutions are produced or modified by Developers and tested, validated and applied by Adopters. Decisions about data sharing are also made within Workspaces.

Participants are actively involved in setting the priorities for the projects and selection of the tools chosen for development. The final products are shared amongst the caBIG community and openly available to all who want to use them. Working Groups (Workspace level and Strategic level) have also been established to provide guidance and support to the caBIG Workspaces and to the caBIG initiative as a whole.

To read more about how the caBIG Pilot is structured, click here.

Kick-off Meeting

The Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) program launched the pilot project Workspaces and Working Groups with a two-day Kickoff meeting on February 19 and 20, 2004 in Washington, DC. More than 160 representatives from 49 NCIdesignated Cancer Centers participated in the Workspace sessions to share project information, establish priorities and set strategic directions as we continue moving the caBIG initiative forward.

Click here to review the Kickoff Meeting materials.

caBIG Fact Sheet

Click here to view the caBIG Fact Sheet.